What we see here: Gun violence has posed a significant problem in Lansing in recent years. An annual increase in gun deaths peaked in 2021, with a loss of 27 lives due to homicide, suicide, and accidental death. 70% of the deaths in 2021 were young people aged 25 and under, and 6 of those victims were under 18. The influx of gun violence led folks, particularly those at risk of violence, to seek out guns to protect themselves. However, the increase in guns may have led to more opportunities for violence. Luckily, the number of gun deaths has declined since 2021. This may be partly due to the efforts of multiple community organizations and efforts to support youth and address gun violence in the city. 
 

A note about the data: gun violence deaths at a very local level are difficult to track. We worked to focus specifically on Lansing (as opposed to the Greater Lansing area as a whole) and ran into significant roadblocks to coming up with reliable numbers. The context of individual gun violence deaths can impact how those deaths are classified, which can determine whether or not they get “counted.” For example, our main sources are police homicide statistics and local news coverage. Many gun violence stories and statistics are specifically about homicides - this means that it can be hard to determine how many people are lost to accidental or self-inflicted gun violence if these stories are not shared. 

We did our best to compile and compare information from multiple sources to get to what we think is the most accurate idea of gun violence deaths in Lansing. Our main sources were reports on individual cases (and compilations in more recent years) from local news outlets (primarily the Lansing State Journal and WLNS) and Lansing Police Department data on fatal shootings via the Advance Peace Initiative website. A secondary resource was the Lansing Gun Memorial website. Moving forward, we continue tracking gun deaths as they occur and are covered by local news.

 Communities can experience gun violence or exposure to gun violence through domestic violence, community violence, firearms stored at home, and school violence. Gun violence isn’t only experienced through mass shootings or domestic situations - suicide makes up over one-third of all youth gun deaths and nearly half of suicides among young people. People don’t just experience physical and direct harm, but they also experience indirect exposure to gun violence that can adversely affect their well-being and mental health. The side effects of gun violence can impact mental health, such as causing PTSD and anxiety, which can increase the risk of substance abuse. It can also lead to poor school performance and difficulty concentrating. 

Gun violence disproportionately affects Black residents and youths. In 2017 14,542 people in the U.S. were victims of gun homicides. Black people accounted for 58.5% of those deaths, despite making up just 13% of the U.S. population. Pre-pandemic neighborhood firearm violence exposure was lowest among White children and highest among Black children, who experienced four times more exposure. The pandemic exacerbated this exposure to gun violence; it increased for the lowest-risk group by 27% but had a far greater effect for children in nearly all non-White categories. Geographically, disparities of the greatest magnitudes were in the Northeast and Midwest. Our youth need us to enact change and push for equitable access to trauma-informed programs, community-based prevention, and systematic structural reforms. Black youth in Lansing are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. In 2021, approximately most victims were Black, under 25, even though they make up only 12% of Lansing’s population. 

Another impact that gun violence has is on health costs, the economy, and other things outside of physical harm. Research suggests that in 2002, gun violence cost approximately $2.4 billion in taxes. Gun violence impacts the survivors, their families, and the entire nation.

• Access to quality health care: Research supports that access to health care, general treatment, and mental health treatment is significantly associated with reducing crime and recidivism. An example of this is states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act saw a significant decrease in annual crime rates, both violent and property crime. After two years, there was a yearly cost of savings of 13 billion dollars.

  • Access to Health Care ACA Medicaid Expansions

• Community Violence Intervention (CVI): This is where entities like government agencies employ trained individuals to intervene and de-escalate violent conflicts and provide wraparound services to those at risk of violence. CVI and its associated methods have been linked with reducing re-hospitalization for violent injury and reduced youth involvement in future crime.  

  • Trauma Recovery Center Network in Ohio

• Employment and job quality: Studies have shown that when youths have access to both workforce development and adult employment programs, there is a reduction in community violence. Even raising the minimum wage has impacts. In 3 years, a study saw that if a state raised its minimum wage, the re-arrest rates fell by 2.5% for every $0.50 increase.

  • New Orleans Job Training Program.

• Youth employment and skills training: Access to quality employment and skills training has been supported and known to help reduce violence by 45% nationally. Also, summer jobs have the effect of preventing and reducing violence even in the months after they have returned to school. 

  • Chicago Summer Job Program.

• Green spaces and transforming vacant spaces: Research supports that renovating empty locations and having quality green areas such as parks reduce violent crime rates. Investing in vacant lots in high-poverty neighborhoods has decreased violent crime by 29% in one city.

  • Remediating abandoned homes in Philadelphia.

• Enhancing capacity building for community-based organizations: Investing in low-capacity or grassroots organizations already doing work but need support is another excellent tool to combat gun violence. The need to build capacity for community-based organizations is pressing because there is no one way to address gun violence, and one organization cannot fix the issue.

  • Grant Program In Minnesota.

• Gun reform legislation: Solutions to gun violence are not linear, so creating gun reform legislation is essential. Research suggests that universal background checks and promoting safe firearm storage have helped to decrease gun violence. The state of Michigan passed similar legislation (and more) in April of 2023.

• Mentoring: Mentoring has been proven to be an evidence-based strategy for preventing youth violence. A recent study showed the effects of mentoring that were linked to improved academic, social, and economic prospects and helped to strengthen communities altogether. "The findings indicated that youth who had consistent mentorship was 81% or more likely to report regularly participating in sports or extracurricular activities, 78% were more likely to volunteer in their communities, and more than 2x as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team."

• The Peace and Prosperity Youth Action Movement (PPM) has been an evolving and supportive community for young people (age 12 through high school graduation) in Lansing who want to develop their leadership skills and create positive change in their community. The Lansing chapter of PPM has worked to highlight and educate their community and peers about the ongoing issue of gun violence. They planned and hosted a Stop the Violence rally at Everett High School, where they talked about gun violence and promoted public health solutions such as mental health resources. 

• The Health and Law working groups of Metro Lansing Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) are a team of local partners who want to ensure the quality of safety, well-being, and racial equity for all the youth of Lansing. Lansing members process an issue or an area of concern and discuss if the solution or idea has a sustainable focus before it becomes an action item. Their priorities for providing a transformative change in areas such as safety include the following:

  • Writing a letter to LMTS about the need for mental health services and supporting grant applications for individual psychotherapy.

  • Centered around transforming the criminal legal system by centering MBK/GEN milestones & youth priorities (youth safety, reduced police encounters).

  • Support for the MI Breathe Act and the Lansing Breathe Act.

• The My Brother's Keeper and Girl's Equity Network (MBKGEN) network brings together local and statewide partners to leverage their collective power to meet racial equity milestones. The MBK milestones ensure equity and success at entering school, reading, graduating, continuing education, entering the workforce, and reducing violence for all children.

• Check out the movement for the MI Breathe Act and the Lansing Breathe Act. Pursuing racial equity and justice in institutions is just one of the many goals of the federal Breathe Act on which local Breathe legislation is based. Are you interested in shaping policy or making community interests known to those who do? Join a monthly Lansing People's Assembly to learn about and participate in crafting a Lansing Breathe Act.

• If you are interested in racial equity and education in Lansing, join us in the city-wide process of Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT). The Health and Law working groups of Metro Lansing TRHT are a team of local partners who want to ensure the quality of safety, well-being, and racial equity for all the youth of Lansing. Follow the Metro Lansing TRHT Facebook page (@TRHT Lansing) for updates and information about joining. 

• Join or support PPM: If you are a Youth or know someone from 12 through high school graduation, connect@oneloveglobal.org to get involved with our Peace and Prosperity Youth Action Movement. Our youth are not only future leaders, but they are today's leaders!

In response to how multiple Lansing High Schools have lost students in the past three years to gun violence, OLG held a ‘Stop the Violence’ assembly at Everett High School in 2022. The assembly was held to create a space where a discussion about the violence students experienced was available and to provide resources for mental health services and more. When surveying students, Gun violence was the choice, with 69% of the student body choosing what impacted them most and what they wanted to focus on. 

We also asked students to share their thoughts on the violence they see and hear about. Here are some quotes from the students who wanted their voices heard!

Gun violence is a continuous conversation in our community spaces. OLG holds space for our Lansing People’s Assembly, where the discussion of gun violence is a large portion of the conversation in most monthly meetings. Below are some direct quotes from the LPA regarding gun violence and youth gun violence.

• https://www.brookings.edu/articles/a-new-community-safety-blueprint-how-the-federal-government-can-address-violence-and-harm-through-a-public-health-approach/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10236538/